


Breathe, Be Patient

by eeveningarcherr



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Bending (Avatar), Crossover, F/M, Gen, Lukanette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:21:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29785689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeveningarcherr/pseuds/eeveningarcherr
Summary: ‘Breathe, be patient.’ She told herself as the black haired, blue tipped boy faded into the distance.The things he taught her would never fade though.They’d stay in her heart and mind, just as he had and always will.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	Breathe, Be Patient

**Author's Note:**

> Although this story does focus around Luka and Marinette, it is not inherently romantic. I didn’t write this intending for them to be seen as having feelings other than platonic for each other (but I do like the idea of them having feelings for each other in this story). You can interpret their relationship as platonic or romantic however you want though. Just don’t expect them to show any clear feelings for him each other.

'C'mon Marinette! You can do this! You'll head to the North Pole and master waterbending in no time!' Marinette attempted to encourage herself. 'Ugh, who am I kidding? There's no way it'll be that easy.'

She still managed to continue hiking the jagged ground, though wishing she could just head straight back home and go back to playing games with the children in the snow. 

Why did she have to be the avatar anyway? Why couldn't it have been someone else? After all, she didn't think she was anywhere near as powerful as the avatar, the almighty bridge between the two worlds. 

Maybe the universe made a mistake.

She could already hear what her mum would say to that. "The universe doesn't make mistakes sweetheart." And she felt the urge to roll her eyes.

Before Marinette could drag herself further, she felt herself pulled. Not physically, more spiritually.

She turned her gaze to the direction of the pull and saw what looked like the Southern Air Temple in the distance that, admittedly, looked extremely decayed.

‘The temple feels powerful, but why? It's just an old, disheveled temple.' Her eyebrows furrowed.

'Should I go check it out? I mean, it might have something interesting enough to see while I take a break.' She considered. 'Though, the fire nation's probably burnt the whole thing.'

Despite the counter argument, she began climbing up the heap of rocks that offered a view of the highly perched temple.

As she got closer to the temple, she began to take in how magical it was, even though it was slightly eerie due to the fog surrounding it.

"Wow." Marinette whispered to herself, unable to take her eyes off of it.

She then heard a breath being taken in, and panicked, worried that she was being watched.

While turning quickly to observe her surroundings, she noticed a figure right beside her. A black haired, blue tipped boy meditating with his eyes closed.

He took another breath in, and breathed out, looking completely unbothered by the world. Not even by the fact that he was beside a temple that probably contained countless lifeless bodies of air nomads.

Suddenly, the boy stopped breathing deeply and his eyes opened, staring right into hers.

"Hey."

Marinette jumped up in panic. "I, Uh, Hi! My name's Ma-Marinette!" She smiled sheepishly as she stumbled on her words.

"Nice to meet you 'Ma-Marinette'." The boy chuckled as he imitated her stuttering.

She frowned at his mocking of her, but he took notice of this in an instant. "Sorry." He looked down in shame.

Marinette smiled at his compassion, and sat down by him. "So, what's your name?" 

"Luka."

"It's nice to meet you then Luka." Marinette said.

"Thanks," Luka's shoulders relaxed, smiling. "Avatar."

"Wait, what?! How did you know?" She panicked, unable to collect her thoughts.

"You have a lot of spiritual energy coming from you, around the same amount as a skilled airbender, but because of what happened to the airbenders," He glanced at the temple. "And your water tribe clothing, I ruled that out."

"How do you feel spiritual energy though?" Even though he answered her first and most important question, more questions began piling in.

"I'm pretty connected to the spirit world and have been for a while." 

"Wait," Marinette said, finally putting the pieces together. "You’re an airbender?!" 

"Yeah." Luka said.

"What-? How?! I thought all of the airbenders were hunted a hundred years ago!" 

"Most of them were. The only exception was my great-grandfather. He was luckily travelling with a teacher of his named Monk Gyatso." Marinette made herself more comfortable. It was clear that this story would be long. 

"They were forced to go into hiding and stayed at Ba Sing Se. My great grandfather then got married and had an airbending child. He taught his child everything and then that was eventually passed on to me through generations." 

"Wow, so you're an airbending master huh?" Marinette brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on the arms that laid above them.

"Yeah, though I don’t follow certain traditions like the old airbenders did like shave their heads or wear those traditional air nomad robes." Marinette looked down at his regular, likely Earth kingdom based on her limited knowledge, clothes. "It'd attract too much attention. But at least I'm here and able to keep the air bender culture alive."

The conversation ended there and a moment of silence passed between them before Luka spoke up. "You seem troubled. Is something wrong?" 

"No, not really. Ugh, I don't know. I just- I need to master all the elements so quickly to stop the war and I don't want to deal with all this pressure." Marinette leaned back, staring at the view of the Southern Air temple to keep her mind occupied.

She felt a warm hand on her forearm. "You know you don't need to rush learning all the elements. Yeah you have to master them and defeat the fire lord but rushing the process will trip you up when mastering the elements." Luka said. "You just need to be patient."

"Patient?" Marinette turned to him confused. "But this war is causing so much pain and death, so I need to master the elements as soon as possible, otherwise more and more people will be killed." 

"But if you rush things, you'll likely lose against the fire lord. It's better to be strong enough to beat him without a disadvantage." 

Silence. Marinette sighed, avoiding his eyes. "Yeah," She said defeatedly. "You're probably right."

"So, are you looking for a waterbending master first?" 

"Yeah, that's why I'm heading to the North Pole." Marinette made eye contact with Luka again. "Though I don't know how or where I'm going to learn the other elements."

"You know," Luka ran his fingers through his hair. "I could teach you Airbending if you want?"

Marinette's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah." 

Marinette began to jump up and down, unable to contain her joy. "Thank you so much!" 

"It's no problem." Luka got up, stretching his limbs. "Should we start now?"

Marinette got up as fast as lightning. "Yes!"

  
  


"Take a deep breath in, and then breathe out. Try to tune yourself out from the world." Luka said as his eyes remained closed.

He shared advice every now and then as they meditated. The two had moved locations inside the Southern Air Temple, as Luka was able to carry them across using the glider that had been passed down across his family.

Marinette took another breath in. "Make sure that you're at peace, and your mind and spirit are free. Airbending is the element of freedom after all." 

Marinette recited his words in her head. "Alright, let's try again." Luka helped Marinette up before they approached the contraption once again.

"Ready?" Luka brought his arms up, ready to blast wind at the airbending practice contraption.

"Yeah." Luka blasted wind at it and immediately all the doors began spinning rapidly.

Marinette rushed towards the doors. She felt faster after the short meditation session she and Luka took.

It, very clearly, turned out to have helped a lot for as soon as a door came spinning her way, she was able to slip between it and the door beside that one too.

She passed rows of doors after doors, and before she knew it, she had made it across.

"Yes! I did it!" She cheered, relieved that she had finally gotten across this obstacle.

"Great job Marinette." Luka amusedly smiled, now standing in front of her. "Now we can focus on blasting wind, or forming spheres of wind now that your movements are fluid."

  
  


"Ugh! Why can I still not do it?!" Marinette groaned, cursing the universe.

"Have some patience Marinette, I'm sure you'll be able to get it." Luka responded calmly.

Marinette sighed before breathing in and out as Luka had instructed her to do when frustrated. "Alright, I'll try again." 

She expected that she would fail at the next attempt yet again but to her surprise, she felt a small unnatural gush of wind extend from her hands.

"I told you," Luka winked at Marinette playfully, a comforting warmth in his expression. "Try again." 

Practice went on for about an hour, and Marinette felt herself get fatigued gradually but didn't let up. Luka ended up having to make Marinette take a break and eat.

The two sat on the steps of the temple, eating their fruit they had picked earlier and sipping water. 

"You're progressing really quickly." Luka said as he chewed.

"Thanks," Marinette turned her head, trying to hide her wide grin. "Though I'm surprised I was even able to get it so quickly. I mean, it's only been, what, barely a week?" 

"Actually over a week. To be fair though, we spent the beginning just going over stances, spirituality, looking into the history of airbending and how it needs to be remembered when learning it." 

"Wow, time goes by fast." Marinette laid back on the steps, glad to rest her sore limbs.

"But make sure you don't overwork yourself and to take breaks." Luka said firmly.

"Uh huh." Marinette agreed mindlessly, tossing a berry into her mouth.

"Anyway," Luka said getting up. "Let's continue."

  
  


Three more weeks went by like lightning. 

And by the end of the month, Marinette was able to call herself a strong airbender proudly. She also spent time getting to know Luka in the process. 

It turned out that he was a travelling musician, which is how he was able to unsuspiciously travel around the world nomadically, and visited the air temples whenever he was near them.

He had also told her small funny stories like how his father reacted when he dyed his hair ("My dad was tempted to just grab a sword and chop it all off."), or his experiences during his time in the Fire Nation when he stood up to soldiers that bullied citizens, or even times when as a child he'd annoy his mother by pulling pranks using airbending.

"You're leaving soon, aren't you?"

Marinette looked over to him. He was sitting against a tree with one leg up, studying her.

She took a moment trying to choose her words carefully so as to not make everything feel depressing but she couldn't think of anything. "Yeah."

The corners of Luka's mouth curved upwards, making his ocean-like eyes squint. "Well then I'm glad I got to spend this time with you." 

He rested his arms on his propped up knee and his head followed after, looking completely at peace with the world (which was something that always seemed to bother Marinette. There was a war going on after all!)

Marinette's mood dropped. She had been avoiding thinking about the fact that she would have to leave him, as she felt secure with someone as skilled and strong as Luka by her side and she couldn't bear to think about suddenly being without it.

She pondered how to break the deafeningly and uncommon silence. "You could... come with me?" 

Luka lifted his head at the sound of her voice, his eyebrow arched, "What?" 

"I'm going to the North Pole next, why don't you come with me? You travel all the time anyway." Marinette said eagerly, feeling herself edge forward awaiting his response.

Luka smiled kindly before dropping the lightheartedness immediately. "I can't, I'm sorry."

Marinette's eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"If the Fire Nation catches word of the avatar being back, and that's really likely, and I were travelling with you, I'd be hunted alongside you. I can't let myself be captured. I'm the last airbender, so there's a whole culture on my shoulders." Luka fiddled with his silver necklace, something Marinette had noticed he did a lot out of habit.

Marinette sighed. "That makes sense. Sorry for asking." She stood up and walked towards Luka. "Instead, let's enjoy ourselves until then." 

She held her hand out to him. Luka grinned. "Sure." He grabbed her hand and got up, gripping her hand firmly.

“Now c'mon! Let's grab some more water from the river!" Marinette pulled Luka with her as she ran, pushing away the feeling she knew she'd feel when they parted and decided to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

  
  


Marinette now stood silently by Luka, burning holes into the ground as she clutched her backpack.

“So this is it...” 

“Mhm.” Marinette hummed, knowing she’d probably start crying if she spoke.

What felt like a century of silence passed through them before Marinette was pulled into a tight embrace.

She hugged back as soon as she processed the situation, gripping him so tightly as if he’d disappear if she let go, and to be honest, it might as well have been the case to her.

“I’ll miss you.” Marinette dug her head into his shoulder. She became very conscious of the height difference between them, her eyes being parallel to his nose.

“We’ll see each other again.” Luka pushed apart and stared intensely, gripping her shoulders. “I have no doubt in my mind that we will.”

“How are you so sure?” Marinette felt tears brimming in her eyes.

“Because I’ll make sure that we will. I’ll find you again at some point. I promise.” Luka said, taking his hands off her shoulders and now holding her hands instead.

They pulled in to hug again, silently deciding this would be their last for now.

“I guarantee I’ll be as good of an airbender as you the next time we see each other.” Marinette said playfully, easing the tension between them.

“I look forward to seeing that.”

And with that last sentence, Marinette walked away. She began her journey to the Northern Water Tribe, but instead of beginning it with fear or worry, she began it with a confident smile on her face.

‘Breathe, be patient.’ She told herself as the black haired, blue tipped boy faded into the distance.

The things he taught her would never fade though.

They’d stay in her heart and mind, just as he had and always will.


End file.
